** Official Returnal Thread **

Soldato
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I am glad you said that! As I thought when I took a break from Returnal that just I lost the flow of it all

It does seem harder, even some of the first biome enemies seem to have been upped a notch

The patch that came out where you could avenge downed comrades. It seemed to get a lot tougher after that with some really random enemies spawning even in biome 1.
 
Associate
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I am so glad I am not the only one that was thinking it seems harder. The damage taken from certain enemies seems way op. 2-4 hits and you are practically dead.
Not being able to heal up at the ship has made this really really difficult to play casually.
 
Soldato
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People that are struggling, what weapons are you using? They make a big difference as do the items/artefacts you pick up along the way. Adrenaline leech artefact seemed to be the best for me. Then the hollowseeker with 4 weapon traits including the 2 turrets & damage over time then either waves or the projectiles pass through walls traits. With that weapon I found it quite easy just had to unlock the traits first. And also take your time each cycle, upgrade your max health as much as possible, get the astronaut plus that respawn thing that you need to use ether to activate incase you slip up. I very rarely picked up the parasites as well unless the buff is really good and I had an artefact to counteract whatever the de-buff is.
 
Soldato
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People that are struggling, what weapons are you using? They make a big difference as do the items/artefacts you pick up along the way. Adrenaline leech artefact seemed to be the best for me. Then the hollowseeker with 4 weapon traits including the 2 turrets & damage over time then either waves or the projectiles pass through walls traits. With that weapon I found it quite easy just had to unlock the traits first. And also take your time each cycle, upgrade your max health as much as possible, get the astronaut plus that respawn thing that you need to use ether to activate incase you slip up. I very rarely picked up the parasites as well unless the buff is really good and I had an artefact to counteract whatever the de-buff is.

My best run has been with the Lobster, but unless the heavy hitters are powered up I find they can leave you quite exposed. The Dreadbound for example can be pretty lethal but needs a decent fire rate/bullet return rate otherwise in a swarm I tend to get overwhelmed, mind you the blade does help in these situations. Most of the time though I stick with the carbine, try and level it up, aiming for decent fire rate and bonus power etc.

Early on I go for broke with the parasites trying to grab as many buffs as I can, it can back fire though, losing me an astronaut/watch for example. Maybe I should behave myself in the early levels too, bit more particularly about what I collect.
 
Soldato
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My best run has been with the Lobster, but unless the heavy hitters are powered up I find they can leave you quite exposed. The Dreadbound for example can be pretty lethal but needs a decent fire rate/bullet return rate otherwise in a swarm I tend to get overwhelmed, mind you the blade does help in these situations. Most of the time though I stick with the carbine, try and level it up, aiming for decent fire rate and bonus power etc.

Early on I go for broke with the parasites trying to grab as many buffs as I can, it can back fire though, losing me an astronaut/watch for example. Maybe I should behave myself in the early levels too, bit more particularly about what I collect.

Yeah what you pick up can massively effect you in the long run. Sounds like you need to take your time a little more in the early levels haha I just mainly focused on upping the max integrity coupled with some good artefacts and always buy the large health vial and hopefully a revival item.

Have you not tried the hollowseeker then? the damage over time and turret traits you get with that make it OP imo.
 
Soldato
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Yeah what you pick up can massively effect you in the long run. Sounds like you need to take your time a little more in the early levels haha I just mainly focused on upping the max integrity coupled with some good artefacts and always buy the large health vial and hopefully a revival item.

Have you not tried the hollowseeker then? the damage over time and turret traits you get with that make it OP imo.

Yeah I've done a few runs with the Hollowseeker, it has a great feel to it but I found it lacked the power to take out some of the generic enemies as quickly as the others. Granted the weapons stats weren't the best when I was using it though..
 
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Soldato
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Yeah I've done a few runs with the Hollowseeker, it has a great feel to it but I found it lacked the power to take out some of the generic enemies as quickly as the others. Granted the weapons stats were the best when I was using it though..
Yeah I know what you mean, it lacks power but makes up for it in rate of fire and the traits. I found it really good at dealing with those damn turrets.
 
Soldato
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Completed the game earlier today, used the Lobster to breeze through the level quite easily. Could've used something with a higher fire rate for the boss though, made a bit of a meal of it.

Still got some life in the game so will crack on with it some more.
 
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Finally got the platinum for this tonight. What an absolute slog it was! The way that the collectibles spawn randomly really is a nightmare. It felt like I did hundreds of runs to find them all. It's a cracking game though so I can't complain really. Time for a rest now lol.
 
Soldato
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Finally got the platinum for this tonight. What an absolute slog it was! The way that the collectibles spawn randomly really is a nightmare. It felt like I did hundreds of runs to find them all. It's a cracking game though so I can't complain really. Time for a rest now lol.

I've got 4 ciphers left - 1 in biome 2, 1 in biome 3, 2 in biome 6.. I've gone too far to not get the platinum but it's so frustrating, especially in the 6th biome when YouTube doesn't really help
 
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I've got 4 ciphers left - 1 in biome 2, 1 in biome 3, 2 in biome 6.. I've gone too far to not get the platinum but it's so frustrating, especially in the 6th biome when YouTube doesn't really help

It might sound ridiculous but try to do things to mix up the RNG. I was stuck needing 7 ciphers across biomes 1,2,3 and 6. I must have done 15 runs without finding anything and constantly spawning the same rooms. I stuck it in offline mode and immediately I started finding ciphers on nearly every run. I also started killing the bosses in each biome during the runs. Maybe it was a coincidence but I don't think so!
 
Soldato
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It might sound ridiculous but try to do things to mix up the RNG. I was stuck needing 7 ciphers across biomes 1,2,3 and 6. I must have done 15 runs without finding anything and constantly spawning the same rooms. I stuck it in offline mode and immediately I started finding ciphers on nearly every run. I also started killing the bosses in each biome during the runs. Maybe it was a coincidence but I don't think so!

Yeah I've seen suggestions about offline mode - it's odd as I find the first biome has been really random, but 2nd and 3rd just keep spawning almost identical areas!
 
Soldato
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Ha cool. I never felt like I needed it because I don't share my PS5 with anyone. Rest Mode worked for me. Hopefully more people will go for it now. Man, I miss this game, I want to buy it again!
 
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